Leonardo DiCaprio credits “those teeth” for his transformation into the despicable Calvin Candie in “Django Unchained.” “That was actually my idea,” he told reporters of his evil character’s filthy smile at Ziegfeld Theatre on Tuesday night. “I think he really represented the moral decay at the time. It was only fitting that . . . he was rotting from the inside.” DiCaprio’s character, a vicious plantation owner, “was probably the most disreputable, horrendous, narcissistic bastard I’ve ever read in my life,” the actor said, “and when Quentin Tarantino gives you an opportunity to play those characters, you have to take those opportunities. He really writes the best villains ever, and this guy was the worst of the worst.”

Tarantino, meanwhile, told Page Six at the Cinema Society screening at the Ziegfeld that it was DiCaprio himself who influenced the character. “He read the role and wanted to meet me. I walked away and started thinking about it as a younger character, and I actually ended up loving it when I came up with that idea.”